I’ve loved this tune for a few years now. This is a slightly slower version than normal, so easier for me to sing along to, but my tongue still gets twisted 🧐.
I also like this film because it has that ‘feel’ I want to capture in my Continuation War games.
Eteenpäin pojat!
Great tune, thanks for sharing. I try to compare the words in both languages and make connections but get nowhere.
ReplyDeleteInteresting footage . Can you expand a little on ‘feel’ ideas please?
It’s extremely difficult to match up words in the two languages. The structure of Finnish is so different from English and other European languages. The way you express things can be very different- Finnish has 13 cases so nouns can change enormously depending on what you are saying.
ReplyDeleteSecondly there are very few shared words (unlike English and Germanic and Romance languages) and even loan words are often heavily disguised. Norse derived English ‘gate’ (as in street): Swedish ‘gata’: Finnish ‘katu’. English ‘strand’ (beach): Swedish ‘strand’: Finnish: ‘ranta’. Happily pub is easy: pubi 😊
The point about ‘feel’ is a bit more difficult to express. At the simplest level, the Finnish army is equipped with all manner of equipment from a host of different countries. A real make do and mend approach. Look at the helmets in the clip for example. It’s also pretty much an army based on foot (like the Wehrmacht in reality) and horse-drawn. More than that though, I suppose what I mean is that is a citizen army with a very independent. At least as I see it (and my reading has been very limited). It’s still a new army and a new country, with fairly fresh wounds from the civil war. As much as the some of the ruling elite want to, this is never going to be an army of ‘Prussians’. But given a reason and an outside prospect of success, they are going to fight.
Plucky underdogs and a very jaunty tune. My foot was tapping which is always a good sign. As Trad said above the translation is a tad clumsy, but given what you’ve explained about the language it’s easy to see why. As the clip progressed I was trying to note the different countries that the armaments came from. I think I saw Curtiss Hawk planes in there and I know they used Brewster Buffalo’s along with a version of the Gloucester Gladiator.
ReplyDeleteI’m really surprised you haven’t done some skirmish type gaming of this period (I need to go back and check on your blog to see if you have) given your emotional connection to the country.
Incidentally top marks for getting your tongue around any of it - I still have trouble with my French.
I have indeed done a few games. Tagged as Continuation War.
DeleteYou’re right about the translation. There’s something odd about a horse, which must be some sort of idiom. I’ll look it up again and see if I can get someone to explain it.
Oh and on that list of aircraft, don’t forget Hurricanes. I think they bought about 6, which arrived too late for the Winter War. Think they had ME109s too.
Right, I’ve consulted two experts and they don’t think it is an idiom. It doesn’t really make sense to them either. One suggested it was just a convoluted way to find a rhyme ’pää’ (Head) ‘helkähtää’ (startle).
DeleteThat is a nice song and you really can't beat a polka for a jaunty tune:). I'm watching a Finnish film on Netflix about the Continuation War in 1944 (not great to be honest in terms of story) but lovely to look at for us wargamers, with the mix of uniforms, ATG's, tanks etc. So now I'm pondering using my 'spare' Germans and bits'n'bobs to make a Finnish army for this stage of the war.
ReplyDeleteYou can’t mean Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas) surely? I found that gripping from start to finish. Two other possibles that I’ve seen are Tali-Ihantala, about the battle where the Finns finally stopped the Soviet summer offensive in 1944. That is very ‘episodic’. More of a collection of (true) anecdotes than a story. The other is a love story (yeuck, girls!) where horrible things happen to the heroine.
DeleteNo, sadly the Unknown Soldier is not available yet or as of yesterday. The one I'm watching is the 1944 one (on Amazon Prime not Netflix as originally stated!) and is very episodic as you say, but intercut with clips from the War, which make it more interesting from a visual point of view. I did finish The Winter War this week which wasn't too bad and pretty realistic in places, helped along by having read a book on the conflict last year which helped make sense of the action.
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